Request a Team SharePoint Site or Microsoft Group

Types of Microsoft Groups

Before requesting a group, this guide may help you understand your needs and streamline your request. Please consider the following:

M365 Groups

are used for collaboration within an organization. They have features like a group email address, a SharePoint site, and sometimes Teams chat and Planner. They can be used for project management, document sharing, and team communication. The M365 Group does have a shared mailbox to send and receive emails.

There are two types of SharePoint sites:

Team site/All staff

We create a team site for each discrete group of people or unit of work.

• The Team/All Staff site is used to Connect, Collaborate, and Create. It is a place where a work group or project team members can collaborate on project deliverables, plan an event, track status, or exchange ideas. In a team site, all members are content authors, and we jointly create and edit content. Think of team sites as places where work gets done.

  • i.e., my project team needs a place to work collaboratively on deliverables. Even though we have individual assignments, we collaborate to create one or more assets. Our project team needs a Team Site.

• A Team Site is used for internal collaboration to share documents, collect data, and work together

  • This type of site may be created for committees and hospitals alike. Good For:

    • Project Teams, i.e., New Marketing campaign footwork, New technology exploration

    • All hospital staff communication and document storage

    • Department Teams, i.e., Finance Team, Doctor Education, etc.

The Operations site is a special Team site used for:

• reporting financial data to ops and finance

  • Access to Operations sites is reserved for leadership, Finance, and Veterinarians. These sites are not intended for Team Member access.

    • ROM

    • Veterinarians

Communication

The communication site is used for the distribution of information, not collaboration. Thrive Community and its associated Hubs are Communications sites.

• The Communication site is used to Showcase, Share, and Storytell: When you want to "broadcast" a message, tell a story, share content for viewing (but not editing) to a large audience or the entire organization, or showcase services or people, we use the Communication Site. In a Communication Site, there is a small number of content authors (Owners) and a much larger number of content readers or consumers. This is our Community intranet. Even though there may be collaborative parts of the intranet, the primary purpose of your intranet is to communicate a story, such as corporate news, or showcase services and information.

The group Owners manage SharePoint/Microsoft Group membership. For step-by-step instructions, please see SharePoint: Membership for All Staff Site, All Staff Email, and other SharePoint Sites and M365 Groups.

Distribution List (DL)

• An email address that sends messages to multiple recipients on a list but doesn't have an inbox. Distribution lists are useful for sending one-way communications, such as announcements, meeting invitations, and marketing emails. Used to send notifications to a group of people. Distribution lists can receive external email if the administrator enables it. However, each distribution list member will use their personal mailbox to reply to messages. 

Some key features of distribution lists: 

• One-to-many communication: A distribution list allows a user to send a single email to a group of recipients. 

  • Automatic forwarding: When an email is sent to a distribution list, it's automatically forwarded to all the email addresses in the list. 

  • Add or remove members: Users can add or remove members from a distribution list at any time. 

  • Not for discussion: Distribution lists are typically used for one-way communication rather than for coordinating a discussion. 

  • Not for replying: Users cannot reply to the distribution list email. 

  • When someone replies to a message sent to a distribution list, the reply appears to come from the distribution list, not the individual user. This is because distribution lists are a way to send emails to a group of people without having to enter each recipient's address individually. 

    Here are some things to consider when replying to a message sent to a distribution list: 

    • Reply All: If the recipient's email software has a Reply All option, the reply will be sent to the original sender and the list email address. The listserve will then send the message to all subscribers. 

    • Group reply: When replying to a message from a list, it's recommended to use the "group reply" or "reply to all" option. 

    • Listserve configuration: The listserve configuration controls which address is used for a reply.

Mail-enabled security group or MESG

• a group in Microsoft 365 that can distribute messages and grant access to resources: 

  • Distribute messages: Mail-enabled security groups can send users notifications via email. For example, if a printer is broken, you can email everyone with permission to use the printer that it is broken. 

  • Grant access to resources: Mail-enabled security groups can grant access to resources like SharePoint sites and folders.

  • A mail-enabled security group does not have a mailbox.

Member management is the responsibility of the group Owners. Please review Outlook: Manage Distribution List and MESG Groups for this process.

Shared Mailbox

• Though not strictly considered a Microsoft Group, Thrive users may consider the shared mailbox as such. This is a common mailbox that multiple people can access, read, and respond to. It is a good way to collaborate on emails with colleagues and other teams. This is used when multiple people need access to the same mailbox. This could be for company information or support email addresses, the reception desk, or other shared functions.

A distribution list can't be used as a shared mailbox because it already has an email address. The address must be changed to convert a distribution list to a shared mailbox.

The Microsoft Admin Team manages Shared Mailbox membership. Submit a ticket to ithelp@thrivepet.com.

Request a new M365 Group

1. Request a new group by submitting a ticket to ithelp@thrivepet.com for each group.

2. A Microsoft Form will be sent to you; please complete it for each group.

3. The M365 Admins will create the site and communicate its existence through the ticket created.

4. Review the resources Personal OneDrive and Team SharePoint Sites for group management.

Related Documentation

Appropriate permissions may be necessary to access the following files:

• SharePoint: Update Membership for SharePoint Sites and M365 Groups

• Outlook: Update a Distribution List/MESG

• Build an All Staff Site